What happened to Proctor’s Theater?

By Don Rittner

I took my kids to Proctor’s a few weeks ago to see a movie. It was great sitting in the balcony, eating popcorn, and watching the big screen, just like I did as a youth. Wait, I did say Proctor’s, didn’t I? Unfortunately, it wasn’t in Troy.

No, it wasn’t a dream either. Fortunately, the people of Schenectady were smart enough to preserve and restore their Proctor’s theater, but the emotions were the same since there are a lot of similarities between it and the Proctor in Troy.

Theaters around the country are being restored and reopened by the scores. Even our local theaters have been in the news recently. Schenectady’s Proctor unveiled plans for a $22.5 million renovation project a few weeks ago. The newly renovated ($3 million) Palace in Albany reopened in January with much fanfare. What’s happening to our Proctor’s Theater? Not much, it seems.

You may recall that close to four years ago, the city gave our theater to Ali A. Yaghoubi, a New York City developer, who had great plans about turning the commercial part of it into a high-class hotel. I say gave because the $25K the city received probably barely covered legal fees. There seems to be more rumors than hammers flying at the theater complex.

There were great hopes that our historic theater would come back to life. Even a short-lived "Friends of Proctors" was formed. Hard to be a "friend" when you couldn’t sit down with the owner and have a discussion about the "vision" of the theater. The friends group had a very worthwhile plan to utilize the theater that was designed gratis by local architect Don Windelspecht, but it never saw the light of day. While it may now be in "private" hands, I think we should all remind Mr. Yaghoubi that Proctor’s still is "our" historic resource.

It seems not too long ago the Yaghoubi’s showed a plan to RPI featuring the theater area complete with a "hanging" swimming pool, minus a stage, and seats, complete with a workout gym, roof top gardens and apartments, but not a theater. Rumors have also flown about taking the theater down and using the facade as an opening to a brand new hotel complex that would occupy the former theater space. RPI is certainly looking for a 4-star hotel in the collar city. Proctor’s could be attached in some way to RPI’s newly acquired (for about $64 bucks) Chasen Building on the corner of fourth and Broadway. Perhaps it can be attached to the new garage that is now going up behind the theater on Fifth Avenue with an enclosed skyway into the theater.

Mind you, it isn’t such a bad idea. It would be great to have a massive hotel and meeting complex in downtown. Perhaps RPI wouldn’t have to hold their graduation outside of the city of Troy ever again. But we should all insist that the theater not be gutted. If it must be mothballed for the future, then so be it. Mr. Y did repair the roof of the theater and we hope that has now prevented water from seeping in as it did for the last 20 years when the city owned it.

In fairness to Mr. Yaghoubi things are quite different than they were four years ago. The terrible 911 tragedy in NYC, the economy going to the dumps, and New York was especially hit hard. Investment money isn’t what it was and that could be hindering the project.

But we should encourage Mr. Y to go forward, and if he cannot restore the theater, please not dismantle or gut it. I would hate to see the marquee or chandelier on eBay. I would rather see the theater mothballed until a future time when economics are better suited. Certainly this is better than looking at old photographs and lamenting about another historic jewel that disappeared before its time. Until Proctor’s is restored, it remains one of Troy’s top ten endangered buildings.